Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Chaos as Revived Aje Deity shows her stuff at Ile-Ife

Aje oguguluso, ti n fi ekun omo olomo se erin rin..(Aje Oguguluso, the
deity that rejoices in the calamity of others) did not wait for long to show
what stuff she’s made of, after being revived via a series of colourful
traditional rituals at the ancient city of Ile-Ife.

On
Monday 20th February, the paramount ruler of Ile-Ife, the Ooni of
Ife, personally led the rituals at the newly built shrine of Aje Oguguluso, the
deity supervising commerce and trade in Yorubaland. It was the first of such
rituals in living memory, as Aje had before then been reduced to no more than a
myth and a by-word in Yorubaland. Part of the rituals demanded a daylight
curfew imposed on city residents. Aje supposedly brings in economic prosperity
to her devotees – at the expense of other innocent victims.This is not of course peculiar to Aje.Virtually all the deities who promise some
largesse for their devotees, demand not only worship in return, but also some
sacrifices to be sourced from strangers!This could be contrasted with the situation in Christianity where the LORD
Jesus offers His own flesh and blood to provide benefits for His followers.

In any
case, sixteen days after the revival of Aje, on Wednesday 8th March,
hell was virtually let loose at Ile-Ife in an inter-community clash that brewed
and ignited literally overnight.

The
fuel was a combination of economic and sexuality issues, trademarks of Aje. Clearly
the events were taken out of the hands of the two communities involved, and
none of them in their wildest dream could have imagined the outcomes that
followed. While this major conflagration that attracted national attention was
still being strenuously doused, another meaningless mini-conflagration flared
up at the new Akinola market in the outskirt of Ile-Ife. The spark this time
around, was some altercation at a sporting events involving two local secondary
schools. Speaking with the press, one of the traditional chiefs in the feuding
communities lamented how “a mere school riot” had been allowed to degenerate
into a community clash that burnt down a whole market. (https://www.naij.com/1097029-breaking-fresh-violence-erupts-ile-ife-10-injured.html?rs=r1)

In an article 13 years ago, in Vol
7 No 1, we pointed out the glaring price
Nigeria had to pay for the overt involvement of the Sango cult (god of
thunderstorm) in the 8th All African Games, (COJA 2003) held at Abuja. Under
the direction of Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, a fire-spitting Sango devotee
synchronised his art with the lighting of the Games Torch.Unheard of, in a game of such calibre, the
Torch went out and remained unfixable for two days, during which Nigeria could
not win a single medal. At the close of the games, Sango was similarly invited
with a fire-swallowing performance synchronised with the extinguishing of the
Festival Torch.The price for Sango’s
involvement was a catastrophic thunderstorm that pulled down the entire
velodrome.Incredulous Julius Berger
engineers could only express their complete shock at a development they said
they had never before encountered in decades of operations all over the globe.

In
conclusion, we re-affirm that the key reason CA! harps against idols and
idolatory is the unnecessary price society pays for servicing these protection
racketeers. We appreciate the local culture and sympathise with those who feel
compelled to service the deities with their never-ending demands for blood and
calamities.While some with vested interest,
such as the Harvard-based “renowned expert” on Yoruba traditional religion, Professor Jacob Oluponna openly request of the
rest of us to brace up and adjust to the realities of human sacrifices and that
sort (see pages 64-67 ofthe book,
Ile-Ife: City of 201 gods), not just the average citizen in the land, but even
those cajoled/coerced to performing those sacrifices know that the cost is
simply not worth the benefits.Why for
instance, as Prof Oluponna (who incidentally was the son of a long-serving
revered Christian minister in Ile-Ife) documented in the same book, on at least
2 different occasions spanning decades, would the devotees be seen to be
visibly scared and reluctant to carry out their seemingly trivial chores mid-stream
of the Olojo rituals?Clearly, they
have an idea of the price associated with their actions, and they knew it
simply was not worth it.

At the present time, more
and more deities are being revived, and shockingly, there is an organized move
by the traditionalists demanding existing structures on those lands considered
ancient shrines to relocate.Not only
are they making such demands on private houses, they were audacious enough to
ask one of the biggest and oldest Churches in Ile-Ife to relocate from what is
considered a shrine for a prime deity in Ile-Ife, long abandoned!

About Church Arise! LivingWater Ministries

The Church Arise! LivingWater Ministries (CALM), Ile-Ife, Nigeria is a non-denominational non-profit organization whose vision is to arouse the Body of Christ to the challenges and opportunities of these end times. We seek to warn about the wiles of the devil (on a wild rampage knowing that he has but a short time Rev 12:12); and simultaneously encourage the Children of God to maintain a Kingdom perspective viz-a-viz daily occurring issues, which appearing mundane on the surface, could actually turn out to be of eternal consequences. We dare not fritter away the great priviledge of being on planet Earth at a time like these (see Matthew 13:17).
The vision for the ministry was received at the 1997 God's End-Time Army Conference; and operations commenced January 1, 1998 with the launching of Vol 1 No 1 of the bi-monthly newsletter, Church Arise!.
The ministry was formally launched on April 6 2001 by a team led by Bishop Francis Wale Oke (SOTSM), Pastor Adewole Haastrup (RCCG) and HRH, Pastor Julius Fatanmi (RCCG).
Dr Joshua Ojo is the President.
Please visit our website www.churcharise.org for useful downloads.